Re-creating the Past - On the Quality of Archaeological Reconstruction on Gotland

Abstract

Re-creating the past in full-scale, open-air reconstructions has been done for a long time, but the phenomenon has been accelerating and changing character during the last two decades. The article examines how the reconstruction activities are motivated. Explicit aims are contrasted with implicit motives inherent in reconstruction. Public utility is proposed as an important excuse for the reconstruction activities. As a consequence of the relationship between explicit aims and public utility, we get a rigid form of quality thinking that expresses elitism. Instead of fruitless criticism we can express more clearly what we expect from a reconstruction, and why. Examples used are taken from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.